Wretch
by hylian
Summary: AU. Wandering through desert and forest wearing a suit of armour in order to revive her sister was not something Emily thought she would be doing with her life.
1. Chapter 1

**Hellooo. Aye new storyyy. Chapter 19 of City Of Saints (if you're reading that) should be up later today or early tomorrow. But I give you this. This one is staying. :)**

**Disclaimer: I not be ownin' Skins dawg or the goddamn characters.**

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Fingers curled around the hilt of a sword. Muscles groaned and trembled with exhaustion as they were forced to lift the weapon back into its sheath sitting on her hip. She expected the extra weight it would add to the right side of her body, but she swayed and lost balance for a moment anyway. "Fuck. Fuck you." she muttered to the deadly tool and it's case. Tired feet dragged themselves across the large expanse of open desert. The wind whipped the sand around her and she was thankful for the helmet she wore. It didn't cover her eyes, but was large enough to block the sand when it was blown her way.

Sunlight reflecting off the ground was almost blinding. She walked with her head bowed. The heat radiating all around her was making her sweat buckets and the armour she wore was scorching from having to absorb the warmth for hours at a time. Her lungs and heart worked hard to provide her body the oxygen that was necessary to survive, but she still felt out of breath. She stopped for a moment to look around. There was absolutely nothing in sight. Just hills and more mounds of sand. In frustration, even in her exhausted state, she bolted into a run to try and get up one of the mountains. When she reached the top, she over estimated the distance her last step would cover and she tumbled down the other side of the dune. Her sword was dragged up her back as she tried to uselessly lodge her hands into the shifty ground. It did nothing to halt the building momentum. She continued to roll down, grunting when her body would hit a tiny rock. It hurt like hell even if the stone was hardly noticeable in the first place.

Finally coming to a rough stop, she gasped for air, only to take in a mouthful of sand. She sputtered and gagged at the dryness, reaching behind her back to try and locate the small bag attached to her waist. It wasn't where it was supposed to be since her weapon had cause everything to bunch up around her underarms. She lifted herself onto her hands and knees and seized the container of water now almost at her neck. She gulped it down, wincing when she felt the grains of sand sloshing down her throat with the liquid. The bottle was removed from her mouth and she lodged it into the hill before lifting her hand to remove her barbute, making it easier for her to tilt her head back and consume the water once again. Dark brown locks, tangled and sleeked with sweat, were freed from the confines of the helmet. They fell around her shoulders as she drank. When she was done having her fill, her hand came up to run fingers along the strands and she grimaced because the hair felt absolutely filthy.

She stood to observe her surroundings once more, squinting to see passed the sunlight around her, she grinned in triumph when she spotted some sort of formation that didn't seem like it was made of just sand. It was far, yeah, but she'd been walking for days. It wouldn't be too bad.

She adjusted the belt back around her waist and ran her hands along the pouches attached to it to check that everything was still in place. Her helmet was lifted off the ground and she shook it to rid it of the sand. It was placed back on her head, dark hair being obscured by the snug fit of the steel.

Trudging through the sand once more, she became slightly irritated at the constant groaning her armour made with every movement. The cuirass she wore over her mail hauberk was dented on the left side. One of her pauldrons was missing. She'd known they were pieces of crap when she'd purchased them, but it was all she could afford at the time. The left one had been shattered by the same blow that had dented her chest plate. She sported greaves to protect her shins, but she wished they weren't necessary. They made her feel like she was lugging a ball and chain around each ankle whenever she walked. She didn't wear a full suit because she felt it would take away from her agility and speed.

A sigh escaped her mouth as she thought about the long path ahead, and not just to the weird structure she'd spotted. This whole mission would take fuck knows how long. It would be worth it in the end, though.

Her fingers played with the hilt of her sword and her other hand swung by her side. She licked her dry lips, already needing more water, but not allowing herself to drink just yet. She had to salvage every drop for when it was completely necessary.

Her legs yearned for rest but she kept on until she reached her destination.

Mouth open in astonishment and eyes taking in the cave before her, she walked the few more paces needed to step inside. It wasn't anything special, but it was the most shelter she'd been able to find in months. Away from the sand and the sweltering heat. She dropped to her knees and crawled deeper into the cavern. She removed her belt and sword from around her waist, then her helmet from her head. The rest of her suit was removed sluggishly as her arms were too tired to move any quicker. Left covering her body was a thin linen shirt and some loose fitting pants that she'd found in a pile of clothing that had been discarded outside of a small village.

She shifted into a cross-legged position. Stretching her legs out before her, she leaned forward to touch her toes. She pulled one foot back towards her to massage it and she frowned because her whole body then felt tense. Sleep was her first priority. Though it probably wouldn't help the ache in her back since she had to sleep on such a hard surface. It's not like sleeping on stony, uneven ground was recommended. She curled up on the floor and didn't fight her exhaustion any longer.

**o**

When she awoke, she noticed the pain in her legs had dissipated. There was now what felt like a bruise on her hip though, from lying in the position she'd slept in. She opened her eyes and something felt and looked different. Her armour was now neatly laid out before her. Her body jolted to sit up straight and she looked around. Brown eyes landed on a sitting figure near the entrance of the cave. Fear did not consume her like it had the first time she'd met the strange person.

She stood up and walked towards it, then she sat beside it when she reached the mouth of the cavern.

"You know, if you're so intent on following me wherever I go, you can at least find me a nice place to sleep." she croaked, her voice weak from not being used often.

"But then you wouldn't learn how to survive."

"I've been at this for over a year, I think I'm doing okay." she snapped in response. She stood up again and walked away towards her suit.

"Emily." she heard from behind as she slipped her mail back on.

"Emily." the voice came again, in the same dull tone.

"Emily." It reverberated through the cave once more before Emily got tired of it.

"What?" she questioned harshly, putting her shoes and greaves on her feet and shins.

The person stood in front of her, "Do not be disheartened…"

"I'm not fucking _disheartened_, you're fucking pissing me off." she went to reach for her cuirass, but was stopped in mid movement as the second person lifted her by the underarms and forced her to stare back.

"You should not be angry, either." it said with it's calculated voice. "Anger will only make you more frustrated."

Emily struggled to relieve herself of the grip. "Yeah, I'm fucking pissed. You can apparently do all sorts of shit but don't use it when it's needed." she continued to squirm. The hold on her arms tightened ever more.

"Fine." the person stepped back. Emily rubbed her own arms for comfort and watched the other close their eyes. Emily was aware that whatever this thing was, human or not, was female. That much was obvious. If its tight, futuristic suit was anything to go by. The helmet was the most interesting part, because it was the only part that revealed that this thing was anything near human. It didn't completely cover its face. There was a part of the armoured helmet that came down to cover the nose and mouth. There was a lighter piece of material with tiny holes covering the mouth, which allowed Emily to always hear the breathing of the being. Her eyes and cheeks were exposed, leaving the brunette to examine the two softest expanses of skin she'd ever seen. One striking blue eye was now hidden behind a lid as the girl did fuck knows what. The second eye was obscured by a part of the helmet that she couldn't figure out the use of.

Emily could hear the being humming and it was sort of starting to get on her nerves. She opened her mouth to tell it to shut the fuck up, but she was cut off.

"Sh." the girl forced her to be quiet.

A few more minutes passed and Emily's eyes looked around the cave awkwardly as the humming got louder with every second.

Suddenly, her body was thrown backwards and she braced herself for the impact from hitting the floor, but it never came. She continued falling, her head spinning at a dizzying rate. All of the places she'd visited in the past year zoomed into her vision before running astray and leaving her disoriented. Places she's never seen began appearing before her eyes until all movement stopped. Gravity finally had its way with her and she fell roughly onto a surface. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would, seeing as how she'd landed on grass. Her stomach, though, wasn't having a very good time. She sat up quickly and threw her head to the side before releasing the contents of it onto the lush, green surface.

She stood up and looked around to find the other girl, the one she assumed brought her here. Locating her quickly she stepped over her scattered armour and belongings, "You could have given a little warning as to what you were about to just fucking do!" she shouted up at her. She was seated calmly in a tree.

"Be calm. Look ahead." the strange woman pointed behind Emily. The brunette turned and her eyes widened. She'd been too annoyed to actually take in her surroundings. They'd been brought to a small opening deep in a forest with a tiny body of water. The liquid was being supplied by a small waterfall. Emily's eyebrows scrunched in uncertainty because it was way too convenient.

"It's artificial. Created by man." The girl was beside her. "It was made by a tribe that used to dwell a few miles from here. They don't exist anymore, they were all killed."

"How?"

"That's a story for another time." The enigmatic being sat crossed legged on the grass with her eyes closed.

Emily didn't push her questions any further. Instead, she slipped her mail off once again and then moved on to her tattered clothes. She stepped carefully into the water until her entire body was submerged.

"Hey!" she called.

The second woman opened her eyes and waited.

"Is there anything I can call you? Like…a name?"

"Ten."

"Just Ten?"

"Yes." the woman stood up and walked away.

Emily shrugged, knowing she would be back eventually.

The brunette took to scratching and scrubbing at all the dirt etched into her skin. She wanted all the grime out of every wound on her body and all the filth that flowed guiltily through her veins to be cleansed.

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**I have a sketch of Ten's helmet if anyone is having trouble picturing it. I couldn't really properly explain what it looks like waaah. But I can't put it up because I have no way to get it on the computer. It will come eventually, I hope. So yeah, I'm off to work. Have a good day.**

**Peace.**


	2. Chapter 2

**We still don't have much action going on here. But hey, that will come.**

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She took a cautious step over a slim fallen tree, hoping that her foot wouldn't get caught in the vines that were tightened around it. The foot was about to successfully make it over the edge when something flew past her head and lodged itself into the bark of the tree. The object was large enough for her to trip over it at the last second. She fell onto her back, foot trapped. An irritated grunt escaped her mouth as she fought with the tall grass and plants around herself to get up. She heard footsteps approaching and stopped moving abruptly, arresting the flow of oxygen to make less noise.

"What are you doing?" the calm voice asked. Emily glanced to the side and saw the odd flat, smooth looking shoes that covered Ten's feet. They were a metallic looking green, taking in the most prominent colour surrounding them, slightly camouflaging her from any other pair of eyes that would wander through the wood. Emily's eyes traced up the now green suit until she was looking at the girl's head, obscured slightly by the sun peeking through the heavy foliage of the forest. "I thought we silently agreed that you wouldn't wander off while I was away." she continued, bending slightly to free Emily's foot.

Emily stood up quickly after her foot flopped down from it's entrapment, "I didn't agree to anything. I don't even know where we are."

"I brought you here because you requested somewhere more suitable. I brought you here because you wanted a place to recuperate."

"Whatever." Emily stood up and brushed the dirt off the already filthy clothing. "This is disgusting…" she muttered, trying to scrape away the caked in mud on the edge of her shirt.

"Are you ready to leave?" Ten asked.

Emily nodded and walked back in the direction she came from. When they reached the pond again, Emily bent down to gather all of their belongings and put her armour back on, except for her helmet. She held it in her hand.

"Follow me." Ten ordered the second Emily was done. She hardly had time to comprehend what Ten meant when the girl was suddenly lifting herself into a tree.

"How the fuck do you expect me to follow you up there when I'm wearing all of this shit?"

"You follow from the ground. I cover above and you cover below. I can see what's ahead this way." With that, she jumped swiftly from branch to branch and left Emily to mutter obscenities to herself.

She ran as fast as she could through the dense forest, trying to keep up with the speedy being. She failed miserably as Ten had to constantly stop and wait for her to catch up.

The sun was stronger now, beating through the leaves of the trees above her head. She bent down and put her hands on her knees and took a few deep breaths before looking up to see Ten swerving her head. A chuckle bubbled up from Emily's throat as she continued watching the seemingly ridiculous feline-like movements being displayed. Suddenly, Ten looked straight at her and said roughly from the tree, "Get down."

Emily dropped onto her stomach as quickly as possible but not at all quietly. Her helmet landed with a loud thud beside her. She saw the one eye belonging to the other girl roll back into its socket in annoyance. She raised her eyebrow at the emotion as it was the only expression she'd ever seen displayed other than indifference on the other girl's face.

Voices were heard getting nearer. Emily could make out that they were from two men. Their footsteps snapped twigs and mangled dead leaves as they got closer and closer. She held her breath and glanced upward once again. Ten was still looking at her, from what Emily could tell, with a slightly panicked expression. She watched the girl reach silently for the tree that stretched directly above herself. She jumped recklessly to grab hold of a branch that hovered above Emily's body. She hung for a few moments, making no movement, before dropping down on top of the brunette.

Emily almost cried out, but was forced into silence by Ten's hand covering her mouth forcibly. The more agile girl stretched her body to cover as much space as possible, completely hiding Emily's body under her own.

When the hand was removed from her mouth, Emily was surprised to see four buttons underneath each finger in the girl's palm. One finger curled to press down on a red one. She wasn't entirely sure what that just did, but it seemed to calm the frantic girl now on top of her.

The men passed a few feet away from them, looking straight at them, but not actually seeing them. The girls didn't move from their position until they couldn't hear even the slightest noise from the men.

"Those were guards. That means we're near a village. Do you need anything?" Ten whispered into Emily's ear, the sounded echoing a bit louder than it should have because of her helmet.

"Some clean clothes and actual food would be nice and could you please get off of me, you're almost suffocating me."

Ten lifted herself off of Emily, then stretched her arm out to help the brunette up.

"Were we invisible?" Emily asked, picking up her barbute.

"No." the girl looked around, paranoid "I made the suit blend better with our surroundings. Those guys never notice a thing. I don't even know why they bother positioning them outside."

Emily nodded and began walking in the direction the guards came from. Ten climbed back up to her higher position.

They finally emerged from the forest an hour later to come face to face with a thick stone wall.

"Well…" Emily flattened her hand against the wall, "It's going to be fun getting over this."

"You don't need to. You don't look suspicious. I, on the other hand, do have to find a way over." Ten dragged her hand along the rough surface while walking away from Emily. "Just meet me in the back of the market."

Emily agreed and walked in the opposite direction until she located the main entrance.

Four guards were lined up in front of the entrance. Her hands got clammy as she took them in, feeling nervous, even though they shouldn't really try coming after her since she looked pretty harmless minus her sword. But either way she felt her heart rate speed up as she walked towards them.

She tried looking inconspicuous as she trotted through the space between two of the four guards blocking the way. She nodded at one of them, feeling four pairs of eyes practically stabbing her with their glare. Legs upped their pace as much as they could without looking suspicious and eyes looked away from the intimidating man. When she figured she was far enough, she ducked behind a tiny house as quickly as possible to get away from their prying eyes. She leaned her head back against the stone and looked up at the sky while catching her breath.

Clouds now obscured the sun, hinting at rain. She recognised the humidity in the air and she cursed herself for noticing it because she had been ignoring the hot temperature since being in the forest. Now that she wasn't distracted, she felt it full on.

She figured instead of complaining to herself she should find her ally again.

She walked out from her hiding place and was immediately swept up by the flow of people in the narrow streets. She was jostled and pushed from all directions as everyone attempted to reach their own destination. Her hand, out of habit, shot for her thigh to hold her weapon against her leg so it wouldn't bump anyone.

She sighed in relief when she reached the part of the flood of people that bottle-necked, indicating that she had reached the border between the market and the normal part of the town. People pushed their way past her even more as they were trying to exit the shopping area. Finally tired of being trampled, she began to walk with more purpose, bumping people out of her way if they were blocking her path.

Breaking away from the suffocating crowd, she was able to study the layout of the marketplace. Lined up all on one side were stands that sold bread, fruit, meat, fish and whatever else the population could make or harvest. Her mouth watered just from getting a glimpse of proper food, but she was soon distracted when she saw a bird made of parchment fly past her head. It looked innocent enough to other people, but to her it was a signal. She followed the direction it came from and turned down a mostly unoccupied road. Turning another corner into a secluded area between two small houses, she looked up just in time to see Ten carefully let herself down from a low roof.

"You know if you're not going to wear that helmet, might as well sell it and buy one that fits or suits you better." she commented the moment her light feet hit the ground.

Emily lifted the hunk of metal to examine it, "You're right. We'll find a blacksmith after we get some proper food."

Ten raised her eyebrow.

"Please?" Emily pleaded, smiling to try and look as cute as possible. "Pleeeaase?"

Ten just grunted and said, "Follow my lead, then." she got back onto the roof by climbing a pipe that stuck out of a nearby wall. She looked down and motioned for Emily to walk back to the busy part of the street.

Emily obeyed and she soon found herself standing in front of a man selling bread. She ignored the sign that had the price jotted down and asked him how much it would cost to purchase a loaf. A string of useless, irritating questions spilt from her mouth and in the corner of her eye she saw Ten's hand emerge over the edge of the roof of a structure that was behind the man. She continued purposely annoying the merchant as something was thrown to hook onto a few loaves of bread. People around them did not notice as they were to absorbed in their own errands to actualy observe what was around them. The temptation to laugh was almost overwhelming in the back of her throat as Ten pulled the wire and the bread flipped off the makeshift table instead of effortlessly gliding through the air like it was supposed to. Eventually, it was pulled up to the higher level properly and Emily bid farewell to the now flustered man.

They did this over and over to every kind of food stand they could locate.

They met once again behind a set of houses and they sat down facing each other on the floor. Emily grabbed the bag that previously hadn't been in Ten's possession to pull out and eat some of the provisions.

"Don't eat all of it now. We just spent over an hour stealing that." Ten said, a scowl on her face.

"Whatever." Emily replied, mouth full. She swallowed and continued, "Hey, why don't you ever eat?"

"I do eat."

"I never see you."

"That's because I do it when you're not looking or when I'm not with you."

"Do it now."

"No."

"Why?"

"Can you leave me alone? Christ."

"So you _can_ talk like a normal person." Emily smirked.

"Shut up."

Emily reached out in an attempt to rid the other girl of her helmet. Her hand was swatted away.

"Can you stop? You're really annoying."

"I just want to see your face."

"You can…you can see my eye…and eyebrow…and my cheeks, sort of." Ten laughed when Emily huffed.

"Also, Ten is a stupid name. I'm going to find something else to call you."

"Great." was the taller girl's unenthusiastic response.

"Moody bitch? No…" Emily feigned being deep in thought, "Person who is always annoyed when not acting alarmingly serene in every situation?"

Ten sighed, holding her head in her hands as Emily fired out insulting names in quick succession.

"Oh, I know. I'll call you Freak."

"_Jesus_."

"Freakaaaay." Emily continued, trying to get a rise out of the other girl.

"Fucking hell, can you just shut the fuck up?"

Emily mouth snapped shut in surprise before her lips curled up into an amused smile.

"I don't care what you call me, just please be quiet." the girl now had her hands over her ears.

"Okay…_Freak."_

"Fuck…" Ten muttered. "I don't remember you being this annoying."

Emily's brow furrowed, "What?"

Ten shrugged off the comment, "Dunno, you annoying little shit."

Emily simply grinned in response before stuffing her face some more.

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**_Vangoghgurrl_, looooool I knooow. I just really couldn't do anything with Fortress...yet. This idea popped in and was already more fleshed out than Fortress had been in the first place. I had absolutely no idea how to move Fortress along, but this one I did. So I decided to just stick with it. Hopefully this is the beginning of a path you'll like :)**

**_CrashKill_, Thanks for dropping a few words of encouragement. It's always greatly appreciated!**

**Peace.**

**lol for anyone who read this before I realised there were some pretty wonky spelling errors (that made me laugh _a lot_), I apologise. I looked over it a hundred times and have no idea how I missed them.  
**


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